Milapfest is further developing its growth in the Education sector and on Wednesday 29th March we piloted a project to deliver Indian Music, Dance and Art workshops.Milapfest worked in partnership with Sefton Music Hub to deliver 6 workshops at The Atkinson in Southport on Wednesday 29th March to the following schools – Summerhill (28 pupils) Our Lady of Compassion (32 pupils) Redgate (21 pupils). Our overall aim was to introduce the pupils aged 8 and 9 years old to Indian Arts as well as promoting and encouraging an understanding of different cultures.

The pupils arrived at 9.15am and we started the day with an introduction from Sefton Music Hub and Milap, after this, we invited the tutors on the stage to do a short intro and a mini performance. This was a great way of enthusing the pupils and building their curiosity for what lay ahead! At 10 am the pupils broke out into 5 groups and the first sessions started, we simultaneously delivered all 6 workshops at once across the building, 40 mins for music and dance and 20 minutes for Rangoli Art and Storytelling. We had the help of teachers and ushers at The Atkinson to move the pupils between the workshops, during this time I spoke to the pupils about their experiences and it was great to hear the excitement and curiosity build for the next sessions! At the end of the day, the pupils shared what they learnt and some parents arrived to watch too!

The activities and tutors that made the day a great success were:

North Indian dance – Aditi Sen

South Indian dance – Swati Raut

North Indian Percussion – Kousic Sen

South Indian percussion – Bangalore Pratap

Rangoli – Hilary McManus (Manasamatra)
Storytelling – Gayathri Ganapathy